


One more soul to the call.

by Nameha



Series: Set My Heart Ablaze in The Land of Fire [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Fluff, Gentleness, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near Death Experiences, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 01:11:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19735354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nameha/pseuds/Nameha
Summary: As he lay dying after his encounter with the Kinkaku unit Tobirama confronts his feelings towards others and his life.He didn't expect to live, he didn't expect a rescue. However Kagami had other plans.





	One more soul to the call.

From under the canopy, through glassy unfocused eyes, he could barely make out the silhouette of the moon: A crescent, mocking smile. 

Waning, just as he, fading quickly as the clouds passed over the sliver of branches.

His plan, was a real shot in the dark. It came a little too late, now, it’s over.

How fitting, he should die as he lived. Cold, alone and under the shadow of the leaf.

The low thrum of the cicadas whirled in the surrounding trees, their calls drowned out by the howl of the wind. A loon cried in the distance. Fire flies floated lazily like blinking embers on the wind.

Tobirama could feel the blood congeal between his teeth as he took wet, ragged breathes. Tacky, metallic, film coating the roof of his mouth and nasal cavity. Blood clots bobbing in his throat as his punctured lungs slowly filled with fluid, crackling, as he struggled to draw in air; Collapsing into themselves with each shuttering gasp. Fragmented bone grinding together as his chest expanded, seizing from pain.

Body pinned down, crippled from hemorrhaging. Imprisoned, in what would be his grave. Flesh embedded with jagged, protruding, remnants of weapons that gleamed in the moonlight, speckled with his gore.

Shinobi of their caliber, Tobirama could laugh, they should have finished the job, made sure he was dead, instead they left him here to bleed out.

But maybe slow agony was better, he could have a moment to himself. Separated from the chaos of his life, alone with his thoughts, only fear to play with.

He wasn’t the first to die for the village and he knew he wouldn’t be the last.

He drew his broken nails along the dirt, making grooves in the soft soil, clenching his fingers into weak fists. His limbs growing as numb as he had, inside, over the years.

Resignation, an unfamiliar sentiment, how sickening he seethed, drawing a hissing breath through his teeth.

But his wasn’t a wasted life, unlike his brothers, he told himself. His brothers had died young and died for nothing, a waste. No, his…this was a sacrifice, rational thought pleaded. Death for the living, he assured himself. It was what was best, For his last remaining brother, for the village, for his students.

His precious students. They would see the dawn break over the trees, they would live through the night, would be able step out into the sun. Yes, their fire, their will, would continue to burn as his smoldered out of existence. He could sense them, still, through his haze. A small comfort.

Following them, the flickering signatures, like spirits, burning in the dark.

Much like the apparitions that haunted his peripherals, they came to him, weaving in the shadows, waiting.

Sharingan glowing red in the gloom, at the edge of the forest line.

Manifestations of his guilt; He still remembers, the names, the faces. He saw his brothers murderers in them all, his eidetic memory would not allow him to forget all that he had cut down. Their fate put into his hands.

He does not look, not yet, does not face them. Keeping his eyes trained on the low passage of clouds, he swallows, he isn’t ready.

His fear, his hate, was it worth the price?

Madara never forgave him for Izuna. Although Madara’s little brother had walked away from their last battle, there are other ways for shinobi to die.

Tobirama had stilled his hand, curved his blade at the fraction the last second. Spared him. But it wasn't enough, as Madara's grief rampaged. Afterwards Izuna was too weak to continue to fight, even after Hashirama healed him, to resist. Succumbing to Hashirama’s ideals of peace, Izuna was not the same.

“I hope you get what you deserve.”

Madara had seethed, hissed, his parting words to Tobirama earlier that night. 

Drawn up close, breath ghosting over the shell of Tobirama’s ear. A declaration, a wish, for Tobirama’s death.

“They will haunt you, In your final hours. I promise you that, Senju.” Madara had spat, a prophecy.

Tobirama wondered, briefly, if it was true of the Sharingan’s visual prowess. If it could actually predict the future, how clever if it could, that Madara would see him now. Laughable, he’s sure it’s only a rumor, Madara would have had more conviction if he could tell fortunes.

Madara had never forgave him, not for any one of them. No, no one had, not even Hashirama.

Tobirama insides squirmed, lurched at the notion, eyes burning with repressed heartache.

Hashirama, his last brother, his only family, had not been able to look past the veil of death he shrouded himself in.

But the damage done to his heart, his little brothers, was the start of the end.

His descent into the darkness came when the light went from their eyes, he can admit now, in his hour of reprieve, he can be honest with himself.

One after another, another piece of his heart, lost, lowered into the ground, entombed in too small caskets. He fashioned armor out of those losses.

There was steel now, where once there was skin. Cold, hard and impenetrable, like the earth his brothers laid in. He cut reminders, into his cheeks and chin, down the paths his tears had taken. A permanent reminder of the hurt.

He became the weapon his clan needed, a demon of the Senju. Born for the rage of the war, bathed in blood until his vision blurred, hands stained red. Pale as the dead he had raised, he couldn’t give up on the past. 

He bore the consequences that his brother could not, Madara’s ire and the villages, cautious, trepidations.

But this mission, this suicide, would be his redemption. A burden lifted.

He knew it was the only way, to make them all see, see that he had wanted peace too. Wanted it enough to lay down his life. 

He knew what they had thought of him, a monster, inhuman to be regarded with fear and nothing else. That he would sow the seeds for malcontent, foster fear and discrimination due to his reserved nature.

Destroy what his brother had fought for, had built, as if he wasn’t on the battlefield, fighting for this dream, as well. 

He barked out a laugh. Fresh blood surging up his throat, spattering his chin as he heaved, coughing violently, another channel of blood seeping from his nose to mingle with sweat and grime.

The irony was not lost on him. A life time spent at war, killing Uchiha, only to die for one.

Kagami.

Tobirama’s eyebrows pinched together, drawn up, lips pulling into a frown, remembering Kagami’s face, when he saw him for the last time. 

When he had to say goodbye. Kagami’s chakra had churned, sickly, when Tobirama handed him his Happuri.  
—  
“For my brother.” 

Kagami’s hand shook, as he reached out, curling around the cool metal, fingers brushing against Tobirama’s own. 

Clutching the forehead protector, as if it were precious, to his chest tightly as he nodded. Knuckles white, A solemn promise. 

Kagami locked eyes with Tobirama, resolution searing under his lashes. Eyes begining to gleam in the low light as he bit the inside of his lip.

Tobirama could feel the apprehension that radiated from Kagami’s chakra, overwhelmingly so. Could sense the dread/panic/uncertainity that bubbled up from inside the others as well.

But none compared to the intensity of Kagami’s. The burning ash/anguish/devotion that clawed at his sensory range.

He had turned away from the depth of Kagami’s eyes, away from the concealed yearning that swam beneath the surface.

“Go.” He had ordered and his team, obediently, dispersed.  
—  
The stars, when had they come out? He noticed them, hanging like mirrors against the endless expanse.

How many nights did Kagami drag him out of his lab and into the fields just to gaze at those celestial bodies?

He felt infinitesimally small. Life would go on without him, though, he had already known that. Death was not the end all, time would continue to flow, with or without him.

He had become…unnecessary.

Ah, he didn’t expect the realization to cut deeper then the sword impaled in his gut, sting worse then the stomach acid corroding his intestines.

Burning from the inside out as the fever overtook the clarity of his mind.

How selfish, to want to be acknowledged even now. A childish desire that he was never able to bury. That he would want Hashirama to smile on him, once again, for the last time, just as he used to.

To be told that he belongs, that he is worth it. Now, his brothers display of affections are reserved for Madara and Madara alone. 

If he wanted it to be Hashirama…Why does his mind conjure a blinding smile that is framed by dark curls, equally dark eyes, brimming with excitement? He isn’t sure. It’s the fever, he tells himself, he can’t think clearly.

No. 

Enough, with the lies. He’s going to be dead soon, he can be honest with himself. 

Kagami had made a home for himself in the frigid wastelands that was Tobirama.

Naturally stand offish, reserved, Tobirama had kept anyone and everyone at a distance. He didn’t let anyone get too close, he would not allow himself to be hurt, not again. 

But Kagami, Sage, Kagami, he wouldn’t leave him alone. That ridiculous Uchiha brat. He had begged to be on his team, early on, thrown himself at Tobirama’s feet. Overjoyed when Tobirama had relented and Kagami was made an official member.

Later, after some years, he became Tobirama's research assistant when Hiruzen and Danzo couldn’t stomach the work. Carrying out his duties with a smile, always with a smile. 

Kagami had set his soul on fire. But now, he’s gone and Tobirama has no right to think of him so fondly. Here alone, dying, somewhere in the dark.

Tobirama slid his eyes,narrowed slits, to the left, mounting fatigue making it difficult to keep them open.

More fire flies had come out, to view his death bed, offering thier condolences. Perching themselves on his bruising skin and tarnished armor. 

Tobirama could vaguely recall lore that the souls of the lost take on the forms of the small insects. He wondered, wistfully, if he too would become one. What a whimsical thought.

Two, small, boyish figures emerged from the darkness in subdued light, a backdrop to the trees. Fire flies swirled around their feet, encircling their ankles with each step.

Tobirama’s startled eyes widen, darting between the two faces. The bridge of his nose pinches and he blinks back stinging salt, his throat feels tight as they come closer, to kneel beside him. Taking his hand they smile.

Itama, Kawarama. 

"You can come home, with us, Tobirama."

Finally, he can close his eyes, his family knows he’s here.  
—  
A bright explosion of chakra catches his rapidly fading awareness as he falls back into the coveted dark.

In the distance an enormous swell of chakra emerges, seemingly from nothing. No, it can’t be... Tobirama knows of only one entity that can generate such immense power. He can feel the ground tremble beneath him.

Susanoo.

Had Hashirama sent Madara to retrieve his body? No. This... this was not Madara.

This Susanoo, it wasn’t the raw fury/grief/regret that surrounded, consumed, Madara on the battle field.

No, it was armored in devotion/desire/compassion. A pure manifestation of affection. It was familiar, it was…  
—  
It wasn’t supposed to rain tonight. But the droplets peppering his cheeks say otherwise. 

Impossibly hot fingers settle against his cheeks, smudging dried blood and grime, in small circles.

His eyes flutter under his lids at the sensation. 

“Oh…Sensei…” The voice cracks above him, sniffling.

“What have they done to you?”

Trembling fingers, repeatedly, smooth back his sweat dampened hair, calloused against feverish, pallor, skin.

The familiar chakra pulsating beside him, warm, tender, loving even. He was hesitant to give a name to this feeling. It calls to him. Calls from the brink, coaxing him back into his body, into the agony of the mortal coil.

This voice, this chakra, Kagami.

“P-please, open your eyes. I know you’re…I know you’re still here.” The voice, Kagami, pleads with him.  
—  
Tobirama can see himself from where he stands with his brothers at the tree line, on the precipice, hand in hand with them. 

Body being held, rocked gently, cradled in Kagami's quivering arms. He feels Kagami's gentle touch on him, even now, barely tied to his body.

His jaw clenches, tensed, in a rigid line as he watches Kagami talk softly to his would be corpse.

The wind rustled through trees. But the air stills around him like a vacuum. 

He has to make a decision, either way it would bring pain. The only question was who would bare the brunt of it. But he's no stranger to suffering.

“Itama…Kawarama…I can’t." Tobirama closes his eyes, gripping the hem of his pants.

"…I can't come home yet.” Tobirama chokes out, in a strained whisper, dropping his hands from theirs.

Itama and kawarama exchange, soft, knowing glances. They put one hand, each, on the back of his arms. Curling their fingers around his biceps.

"We'll be here, big brother."

Tobirama squeezes his eyes shut, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. His shoulders shake, he loved them. He wanted to tell them, to apologise for his mistakes for his weakness, for their deaths.

"We're always going to watch over you, you'll never be alone."

"Thank you." Is all he manages to rasp out. He can't go with them, not yet, he knows.

They laughed, loud and full, smiling brightly. A warmth swells from deep in his gut, crawling up his throat. He wants to laugh with them too, just as he had when they were alive.

They're bright, burning stars in the dark.

Bright as the sun, swallowing the darkness of the forest as well as the judgmental, watchful, glow of the Sharingan that remained, dutifully, just out of focus.

"We love you! Tobirama!" They called after him.

Everything is white, blindingly so, then everything is black.  
—  
Tobirama cracks his eyes open, the red of his iris stand stark against bruising circles under his eyes.

“T-There you are!” Kagami smiles widely, down at him. Tears cutting clean lines down his filthy cheeks.

Red eyes meet, as Tobirama's struggle to focus.

The pattern of Kagami’s sharingan, it isn’t the three tomoe anymore. It’s different it's...it’s a water lily.

Tobirama's breathe hitches at the sight. 

Kagami blinks, his eyes bleeding back to black. His laugh, quickly devolves into grateful sobs. 

Kagami wipes his eyes as the tears escape, hitting the corners of Tobirama’s own, trickling down.

“Kagami. You….should not have…come back.” Tobirama croaked, his throat raw.

“I couldn’t leave you.” 

Tobirama’s lip curls, frustrated. Bloody, chipped, teeth on display.

What was Kagami thinking? This is war. He didn't divert the enemy for Kagami to come willingly into the jaws of the abyss!

But the forest is silent, no longer dotted with foreign chakra signatures. There are no enemies, anymore, they had been dispatched, wiped from this plane entirely. 

“I won’t make it. You came back for a corpse!” Tobirama hisses, voice overlayed with bitterness.

“Don’t say that! You’re not going to die! I won’t accept that!”

Kagami stamps his fist into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Tobirama wants to laugh, but his chest aches. How like Kagami, ridiculous and stubborn. Refusing, even now, to leave him alone, in the end.

“What does it matter, Kagami, What’s one more soul to the call?” 

The damage done to his life, in the name of the...

He knows, that one more soul to the call won't be all.

Tobirama stares past him listlessly, to the moon still watching over him, mocking him with that Cheshire grin. 

“If it’s not you, then there’s no meaning!”

Kagami doubles over him, pressing their foreheads together, a hand under Tobirama's head. His curls framing their faces, a veil for the world. 

Sharingan whirling to life in a flux of emotion. Pattern rapidly changing as tears threaten to overflow, once again. 

Tobirama stills, blanking from the contact, eyes widening. Kagami's breath, hot, desperate, rolling over his face.

"It's for the village." Tobirama whispers.

It's for you he doesn't say.

“If you’re not there! the village, it doesn’t mean anything to me!” Kagami shakes his head, punctuating his every word. 

“I don’t want to go on without you! I won’t! I’ll never leave you behind!" Kagami loops an arm under Tobirama's knees, keeping the other arm behind his neck and gathering Tobirama close to his chest.

"You’re too precious to me!” 

The chakra around them swirls, visible now, a startling navy blue, building upon itself. Vertebrae assemble behind Kagami, ribs encircle them next, the skeleton of a massive warrior spawns from Kagami’s chakra. 

Tobirama can feel it, ringing in his bones, the incredible, raw, force that Kagami is conjuring.

That immense chakra that stalked the forest earlier, it was Kagami's Susanoo.

“You...The…Mangekyo.” Tobirama breathes, vision blurring, eyes rolling back in his head, body finally giving in to exhaustion.

His body feels like it’s falling out from under him. Like the ground had opened up and swallowed him whole. Maybe now, it’s really the end. The stars seem so close, bright dots streak across his closed eyes, like a meteor shower. It’s brilliant, isn’t it?

He wonders, did his brothers see this too?  
—  
The world is all soft edges, rapidly sharpening until his eyes snap open, the world still a blur but his sensory abilities bring him clarity. 

Catching the wrist of a nurse with deadly precision. His eyes narrow dangerously on her as he scans his surroundings, lip peeled back in a snarl. 

The nurse drops the syringe, wide eyed, frozen. He had been comatose not even a minute before. His eyes focus in on the room, it’s the medical wing of the hospital that Hashirama had built. He’s in Konoha, he’s alive.

He takes a shuttering breath, it no longer hurt to breath, his body no longer protesting. He lets the nurse go, she clamors back, near stumbling in her haste to get away.

"T-tobira!"

Tobirama snaps his head towards the sound, Hashirama pitches himself forward. Gripping Tobirama tightly, pulling him close to his chest, Hashirama's hands are on the back of his head and on his shoulders.

Hashirama begins to sob, shake, the reverberating force jostling Tobirama. Blubbering like a child, without shame, against him. Tobirama stills, only for a moment, before bringing his arms up to hold his last brother.

"I thought I would lose you, I was so worried! I couldn't bare the thought of losing you!" Hashirama gasps between his crying fit. Squeezing Tobirama as if he would slip away again.

"Anija...You..." Tobirama stops himself, how could he ever think Hashirama didn't care about him, how could he have been so narrow minded? To think Hashirama would rather have another grave marker then a brother of flesh and blood.

Hashirama pulls away, the dark circles under his eyes evident of his genuine concern, he hadn't slept. His hair fell in disarray, as he struggled to compose himself.

"I healed you, when Kagami brought you back, you were half dead. Tobirama, please don't do something like this again, I was lost...so lost, if anything ever happened to you...I can't bear that!"

Tobirama held onto one of Hashirama's arms, fingers curling around the back. Why did this feel so familiar, this hold, almost like...

The sunlight is streaming in from the window, the night is gone. Banished.

His thoughts are muddled, gaps in his memory, he struggled to comprehend the final hours of his near death experience. 

It all seemed like a fever dream: fragmented visions of a massive chakra, the fire flies, the moon.

"Kagami, he...brought me back?" He blinks, trying to gather his thoughts, he was sure Kagami had left with the rest of his team before he faced the Ginkaku unit.

"The others had arrived without him, they seemed in a daze. They said you made a distraction of yourself and had Kagami double back...do you remember?" Hashirama's brow furrow in concern.

"It's difficulty to recall, I lost a lot of blood...I don't seem to remember much of it..."

"Don't dwell on it, you're here now. You're alive and you're were you belong." Hashirama smiles, a brilliant, blinding display of all his teeth, even his eyes shine and Tobirama feels his face crumple.

His lip quivers and he brings a hand up to his face, trying to hide. But Hashirama knows better and takes the opportunity to embrace him again until Tobirama gathers himself.

"Anija, enough." Tobirama huffs, pushing Hashirama away. 

"You'll undo all the work you put into healing if you continue to smother me!"

Hashirama pouts, pulling back, wiping his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"Am I interrupting?"

The brothers turn to their newest guest, Madara stood in the door way hesitant to enter arms full of official documents.

Tobirama stiffens, fixing his face in favor of something more passive. Madara spares a glance to Tobirama nodding once.

His face bares no trace of his former disdain for the younger Senju, instead replaced with a look of tentative guilt, remorse almost. It's enough to dispell the tension.

"Have you been shirking your responsibilities, Anija!" Tobirama hisses and Hashirama deflates.

"I was just so worried!!"

Madara huffs, though it looked more like he was surpressing a smile.

"Anija, I will be fine. Please, don't let the village suffer anymore then it already has. I didn't almost die for nothing." Tobirama quips.

"But Tobi--"  
"Get out, Anija. I will be here when the paperwork is done. I won't be going anywhere."

Hashirama sighed, glad to have his brother back, he grinned and caught Madara by the arm. Dragging him from the room and down the hall.  
\---  
Kagami came in much later, when the sun setting the sky ablaze in reds and oranges.

He had the happuri in his hands, he gingerly approached the bed. Tobirama looked like he was asleep. He set the happuri in the bed side table.

"I meant what I said, Sensei..." He whispered softly, drawing his fingers along the battered metal.

He left, Tobirama to sleep, without another word.

When Tobirama sensed that Kagami's chakra had left the hospital he opened his eyes.

He reached out, tenderly taking his happuri off the table, tracing the leaf symbol with his finger.

He stared out into the sunset, a small smile graced his lips.

"You think me...precious...to you."


End file.
